Police 'stupid' to have gone in for narco tests

India's top forensic expert inspected the site of the Nithari serial killings on Tuesday to advise the special team of the Central Bureau of Investigation, and raised serious questions on the methods of the Noida police probe.

Speaking exclusively to the Hindustan Times, P Chandra Sekharan said that the Noida Police "stupidly" took the two main suspects for a narco-analysis test, since psychopaths are known to easily lie through them. He also said that in many instances, it would be difficult to extract DNA samples from the human remains scoured at the site.

Sekharan, based in Bangalore, collected all the forensic evidence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. He was honoured with the Padma Bhushan, one of India's highest civilian honours, in 2000 – the only forensic scientist to be so honoured.

"Noida Police stupidly went in for a narco-analysis. There have been many clinical studies around the world to show that people who are not mentally stable can seriously alter and mislead the findings of a narco-analysis test with ease," he said.

Businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his servant Surendra Koli are the main accused in the Nithari serial killings in Noida, in which dozens of children died.

"The police should have focussed on the proper collection of scientific evidence, since it is known prima facie that these two are responsible for the deaths," Sekharan said.

Sekharan said it could take the CBI a few months to establish the identities of the dead if there is deterioration in the bone marrow, from which the DNA samples are lifted. "In many instances, the bone marrow would have deteriorated," he said. "The CBI will then have to locate medical records of the missing children — like an X-ray of a fractured bone, a dental X-ray, a radiology report or a photograph that shows any deformity in the teeth of the children," he added.